9/19/14

Adoption Orientation Class at Catholic Charities starts in a few hours. I'm excited. We are getting ourselves ready to jump when a birth Mom says go. Even though we are trying to find a birth mother match outside of an agency, and adoption agency must be involved in all adoptions in Nevada. They facilitate the home studies and background checks prior to placement and complete once a month wellness checks while you wait for your adoption finalization. They make sure all the contracts are in line, that your court filings are timely, and that you are caring for the child's best interests. The down side is that they charge fees for this, however the fees are hugely reduced when birth Mom match is independent. I will share every inch of this journey with you, including how much it ends up costing us from start to finish. 

After orientation I have a meeting with the social worker who has the most experience with accepting private independent placement. We will have a chat about getting our ducks in a row to ensure that we are able to accept placement when the opportunity comes to us. There are specific rules and they offer differ from state to state. I also need some questions clarified to make sure that I have my information correct;

TO CONFIRM

1. Adoption plans can be put into place at any stage in pregnancy. Once a birth mom gives us a definite yes, we can put it on paper. Once we put it on paper, it enables us to do things like make sure the baby is covered under our health insurance at birth, as well as legally declares that we will be responsible for all costs associate with the child and delivery. Assistance plans and helping birth Mom get back on her feet are often covered. It says a lot of other stuff too, but us voluntarily declaring responsibility is the only part we're concerned about. 

2. In Nevada, our adoption home study application must be in process prior to accepting a placement. In a typical agency match adoption, that process is about 6 months long because there is lots of wait time. In our situation, where we are actively marketing and trying to self match with a birth mother, the home study needs to be in process so we are ready to go. The home study process can be finished in as little as a month, however we are still required to take 6 weeks of parenting classes. We don't have to take the classes if a birth mother chooses us independently.

We have had great success with our fundraising. In two weeks we've raised $14,728.00, which is 60% of our goal. It is a surreal feeling to know that so many people think you are an excellent parent and wants you to raise more excellent little people. A local artist and I are trying to figure out how to put together an art sale fundraiser. Our reach on the internet is growing just a bit each day, and opportunities for cross promotion and marketing are coming in. I haven't yet figured out we'll finish this, but I have faith and confidence that we will raise exactly how much we need. We've had large donations, tiny donations, and everything in the middle. From our heads to our toes, thank you for every McFrothy you didn't buy just to throw some extra nickels our way. We are thankful. We are grateful. We are loved.

Check back in this weekend, after we get some of our questions clarified, and have more information to share.

We're McCanns, not McCan'ts.

-A.